EQT will spend less and produce more US natgas by 2025
EQT Energy, the second largest natural gas producer in the United States, will reduce its capital expenditure but increase energy production by 2025. Range Resources, on their part, said they would keep both output and spending relatively constant from 2024.
Companies released their first quarter earnings reports and spending plans on Tuesday. The U.S. Gas Prices are forecast to increase in 2025. This year, companies will likely pull out record amounts of gas.
EQT plans to spend between $1.950 and $2.70 billion in maintenance capital by 2025, producing approximately 6.03-6.30 BCFED per day.
This compares to an investment of approximately $2.266 billion capital in 2024, which would produce a production average of 6.10 billion bcfed.
Toby Rice, EQT's CEO, attributed the forecast of higher production and lower costs to the strong well performance and efficiency gains from the company’s purchase in 2024 of Equitrans Midstream.
Rice stated in the earnings announcement that "this underscores the tremendous growth we're experiencing at the EQT, and we don't see any signs of slowing as we look forward."
The company's previous 2025 outlook released in February, along with the fourth-quarter results, stated that it expected to spend between $1.950 and $2.120 billion, and produce approximately 5.96-6.23 billion bcfed.
Separately, EQT announced that it had agreed to pay about $1.8 billion for upstream and middlestream assets in Southwest Pennsylvania from Olympus Energy with a net production of approximately 500 million cubic feet each day.
EQT anticipates that the Olympus acquisition will be completed in the third quarter 2025. It did not include this impact in its 2025 forecast.
STEADY OUTLOOK FOR RANGE RESOURCES
Range Resources, a major U.S. producer of gas, announced that it would spend between $650 and $690 million on capital in 2025, to produce 2.2 billion cubic feet per day. Range Resources' forecast for spending and production in 2025 was unchanged since a February outlook.
Range will spend approximately $654 million on capital in 2024 and produce around 2.18 billion bcfed.
Range said that it would also be collaborating with Liberty Energy, Imperial Land and other gas suppliers to supply the proposed power plant in Washington County Pennsylvania.
Range's earnings release stated that "the proposed power facility will serve as a magnet for data centers and industrial operations looking for long-term reliable, efficient energy."
In the coming weeks, other major U.S. producers of gas, including Expand Energy, which is the country's largest, will also report their earnings. Scott DiSavino, New York reporter; Nik Williams, editor
(source: Reuters)
